Two Tax Strikes against Dunne?

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First, there was the Carpark Tax.

That didn’t go down well…

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Acknowledgement: Government ditches controversial car park tax plan

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Strike one.

Then there was the “Talk Tax” on cellphone, ipads, smartphones, laptops, and  all manner of other gadgets. The business sector didn’t like that idea, either…

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Acknowledgement: TVNZ – Cellphone, laptop tax plan scrapped

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Strike two.

Next up, perhaps one of the meanest taxes ever…

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Acknowledgement: NZ Herald – Budget 2012 ‘Paper boy tax’ on small earnings stuns Labour

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Made all the meaner because children cannot vote and therefore this is taxation without representation.

By contrast, the tax cuts of 2009 and 2010 gave the biggest cuts to the wealthiest in this country,

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The 2010 tax cuts alone gave Dear Leader an extra $291 extra per  week, on his old salary of $390,000 p.a. (see: $4b in tax cuts coming) – on the backs of school children doing paper-rounds and other part-time work, for pocket money, it could be said.

Key’s  salary has since increased to 411,510 – plus perks, allowances, superannuation, etc (see: Salaries payable under section 16 of Civil List Act 1979).

For Key, it’s apparently a “non-issue,

“A lot of people didn’t know they were entitled to them so they didn’t bother claiming. The amounts were fairly small and overall we have been trying to clean up the tax code.”

See:  Key rejects criticism of ‘paperboy tax’

I guess when you have $50 million stashed in bank accounts all over the place it’s fairly hard to identify with a kid earning $40 a week?

By what definition of fairness can we justify someone earning $390,000 a year getting an extra $291 a week – whilst paper boys and girls – who are paid a pittance anyway – are taxed for the few dollars they work for? Are we really that desperate as a nation? And then we wonder why our young people are buggering off to Australia and elsewhere?

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If there’s one single example of where our society has gone terribly wrong since 1984 – this, to me, is it.

It’s fairly apparent to everyone except the most sycophantic National supporter that the ’09 and ’10 taxcuts left a gaping hole in the government’s revenue. (see: Outlook slashes tax-take by $8b) Dunne’s pathetic attempts at raising additional taxes is simply a consequence of tax-cuts that were unaffordable three years ago – and remain unaffordable to this day.

On the issue of the “Paperboy/girl Tax”, I look forward to the business sector campaigning hard to scrap that, as they did with the “Carpark” and “Talk” taxes.

After all, the members of the Employers and Manufacturers Association have kids of their own.

Isn’t campaigning on behalf of your own children as important as a carpark?

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Additional

Key defends tax cuts in light of zero Budget (2 April 2012)

Key rejects criticism of ‘paperboy tax’ (25 May 2012)

Car park tax opposition cuts across cultural, class divide (19 March 2013)

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